Conflict Amelioration Research Articles

The elephant in the farm: long‐term solutions are the key to coexistence

The elephant in the farm: long‐term solutions are the key to coexistence

Multiautoculturalism: Reconceptualising Conflict on the Roads

Based empirically on a netnography of public forums related to news articles about car–bike conflicts and accidents on Melbourne’s roads, this article takes classic anthropological and sociological theory on ethnicity and mobility, respectively, into the new territory of explaining the mutual perceptions of drivers and cyclists. Furthermore, moving from ethnicity, we invoke multiculturalism in its senses as a descriptor for ethnic pluralism, a discourse of marginalisation, and a basis for a politics of recognition. Through this we argue for reconceptualisation of the road as ‘multiautocultural’—a space comprised of a plurality of modally contrived and mutually othering vehicular identities and cultures that, like ethnicities in multicultural societies, ought to be appreciated as such in law, education and road design if, as we argue, amelioration of conflict on the roads is to be mitigated.

A preliminary investigation on the genesis of EU cross-border cooperation on the island of Ireland

ABSTRACTThe Good Friday Agreement of April 1998 led to the creation of a new set of political institutions within Northern Ireland and between Great Britain and the island of Ireland. A central tenet of the agreement was to promote cross-border cooperation on an all Ireland and border region basis and, consequently, the new institutional setting for this cooperation forms the core of this research. The article will first sketch an analytical approach that enables the analysis to address new policy processes, the state authority, and the multitude of actors involved. Secondly, it will proceed to an in-depth description of the genesis of the implementation of EU-sponsored cross-border cooperation in the context of the Irish border region. The examination will encompass a description and analysis of the development of the European specific border region programme ‘INTERREG’ and the limited results achieved by cross-border cooperation in such framework. Finally, the article will interconnect the creation of new political institutions within Northern Ireland and between North and South with experiences of regionalism and peacebuilding in order to analyse how processes of EU integration and association are related to border conflict amelioration on the island of Ireland.

European Union Cross-Border Cooperation and Conflict Amelioration

The relevance of European Union (EU) cross-border cooperation for European border conflict amelioration may be questioned in the contemporary global climate of threat and insecurity posed by forces of 'dark globalisation'. In any case, empirical evidence exposes the limitations of cross-border cooperation in advancing conflict amelioration in some border regions. Nevertheless, in an enlarged EU which encompasses Central and East European member states and reaches out to neighbouring states through cross-border cooperation initiatives, the number of real and potential border conflicts with which it is concerned has risen exponentially. Fortunately, there are cases of EU 'borderscapes' that have adopted a cross-border 'peace-building from below' approach leading to border conflict amelioration. Unfortunately, countervailing pressures on EU cross-border cooperation from border security regimes (principally Schengen), the Eurozone crisis, EU budgetary constraints, the conceptualisation of 'Europe as Empire', and the possible reconfiguration of the EU itself compromises this approach. Therefore, the path of European integration may well shift from one of inter-state peace-building and regional cross-border cooperation after the Second World War, to border conflict and coercion in constituting and reconstituting state borders after the reconfiguration of the EU.

Context and Postconflict Referendums

This article argues that referendums in societies coming out of war often fit into the conflict resolution rather than the conflict transformation paradigm. As conflict resolution devices, they may be one-off events rather than part of a longer term attempt to recalibrate relationships between antagonistic groups. Using a number of case studies, the article argues that unless the ground is prepared beforehand, referendums may have a limited ability to bring about reconciliation. Some well-timed referendums have advanced peace processes at critical moments, but these are exceptions and we should be cautious in recommending them as exemplars to other cases. The article highlights three common contextual issues that limit the conflict amelioration possibility of referendums: the exclusion of key constituencies from debates on the referendum process, a lack of voter education, and generalized insecurity.

Beyond Macroeconomic Stability: The Quest for Industrialization in Uganda

Uganda has registered one of the most impressive economic turnarounds of recent decades. The amelioration of conflict and wide ranging economic reforms kick-started rapid economic growth that has now been sustained for some 20 years. But there is a strong sense in policy making circles that despite macroeconomic stability and reasonably well functioning markets, economic growth has not translated into significant structural transformation. This paper considers (i) Uganda's record of economic transformation relative to the high growth Asian countries and (ii) the contending explanations as to why more transformation and higher growth has proved elusive.

Beyond Macroeconomic Stability: The Quest for Industrialization in Uganda

Uganda has registered one of the most impressive economic turnarounds of recent decades. The amelioration of conflict and wide ranging economic reforms kick-started rapid economic growth that has now been sustained for some 20 years. But there is a strong sense in policy making circles that despite macroeconomic stability and reasonably well functioning markets, economic growth has not translated into significant structural transformation. This paper considers (i) Uganda's record of economic transformation relative to the high growth Asian countries and (ii) the contending explanations as to why more transformation and higher growth has proved elusive.

The Role of Economic Assistance in Conflict Resolution in Northern Ireland

External economic assistance from the International Fund for Ireland and the European Union Special Support Program for Peace and Reconciliation assisted in setting the context of the Northern Ireland peace agenda, and holds out the promise of a new civic culture. This article explores people’s perceptions of economic assistance of conflict amelioration in Northern Ireland. Some of the findings, in respect of inter-community differences in perceptions of the utility of external economic assistance in building the peace dividend, are discussed in the paper.

International and Regional Academic Co-operation in Ameliorating and Managing Regional Conflicts

In the contemporary Mankind's world, however still troublesome, global and regional international cultural activities are generally regarded as contributing considerably to: mutual understanding and co-operation; conflict amelioration and management; and peace ultimately. Academic co-operation is one of such cultural activities, and it mat well be the one that provides incentives along these lines on more sound basis. Faced with along lasting crisis in the Southeast Europe a supplemental way is suggested for opening the roads to regional conflict management and hopefully resolution via cross-boundary academic co-operation. It is based mainly on the experience of Skopje ASE-FEE Institute. Several historical and applied system analysis considerations are explored along with a descriptive discussion of activities carried out until today attempting to implement the proposed way.

International financial institutions and conflict management

Canada's participates extensively in both conflict management structures and international financial institutions. This paper explores the potential synergies from these two seemingly disparate areas of foreign policy by discussing the potential role of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in countries with civil conflict, latent or realized. The paper reviews the current literature and examines the role that these institutions may have in both pre‐conflict and post‐conflict countries. In addition to analyzing the ability of these institutions to contribute to the amelioration of conflict, some of the policy implications for Canada are identified.

Value Orientation Differences in an Urban School and Their Implications for the Amelioration of Conflict in the Classroom

This paper has a double purpose. First, it reports and analyzes the findings of a study which examined value orientation differences between Puerto Rican and Anglo American junior high school students in an urban school. Second, it discusses the implications of the results in terms of the amelioration of conflict in bilingual and multicultural situations. The value orientation framework examines the relationship of both cultural groups towards: a) authority, b) peers, and c) the forces of nature. The striking differences shown by both groups in their relationship to authority and their environment (forces of nature) demonstrate the need to develop instructional and curricular models to reduce cultural conflict in American schools. The paper proposes a framework to do so.

Some Effects of Private Contributions to International Security Programs

Effects of voluntary private contributions to international security programs may include shifts in the locus of decision-making from national governmental apparatuses, escape of member states from fiscal responsibility, reduced coercion of taxation, exacerbation of tensions over control, amelioration of conflict, less frequent and intense resort to violence and military spending, and modifications in societal development. Precise measures for these effects are unusually difficult to establish, and therefore, given the inevitable uncertainty, serious doubts arise as to the sufficiency of grounds for violating the basic value of free consumer choice which in a fundamental sense prohibition of individual contributions constitutes.

Ghetto Riots and Others: the Faces of Civil Disorder in 1967

Civil disorders in American cities in 1967 popularly referred to as 'Negro riots' varied in many critical respects. Some can more appropriately be described as social upheavals characterized by a two-phase flow of lawless activities. Others had the character of political confrontations, disorder being used as a political tool by emerging Negro groups to encourage civil authorities to bargain and negotiate with them. Few disorders can be viewed simply as expressive rampages : riots by the anarchic and criminal elements in the community whose binge of anti-social desctruction can only be stopped by 'get tough' police practices. 'Get Tough' police policies were also the cause of some notable disturbances where the fulfillment of anticipations of Negro initiated disorder rather than its reality. Across the nation, ghetto upheavals would trigger 'satellite' disorders in which authority over-reaction occurred. The spread of news about disorders was an important factor in the propagation of violence, considerably more so than actions of Negro radical leaders to foment such events. The initial conditions out of which a disorder emerged affected its course. Pre- existing grievances have a role, but the kind of grievance rather than the number of grievances seems more important. Negro youths have grievances against the police, and a ghetto uprising may take on the character of a competitive game in which youth attempt to humiliate the police. The contradictions between American liberalism and American racism make the future seem troublesome. Short-run strategies of conflict amelioration might profitably be concerned not with eliminating violence but with limiting it such that it promotes rather than hinders the movement toward racial democracy.